Various methods are known in the art for reducing the power consumption of a communication link or network by reducing unneeded data capacity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,791,942, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for reducing power consumption of a communications interface between a network and a processor. The method monitors data traffic from the sides of the interface. Upon detecting a predetermined period of no data traffic on both sides, the method disables an auto-negotiation mode of the interface and forces the interface to operate at its lowest speed.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,584,375, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a distributed power management system for a bus architecture or similar communications network. The system supports multiple low power states and defines entry and exit procedures for maximizing energy savings and communication speed.
Chiaraviglio et al. analyze another sort of approach in “Reducing Power Consumption in Backbone Networks,” Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2009, Dresden, Germany, June, 2009), which is incorporated herein by reference. The authors propose an approach in which certain network nodes and links are switched off while still guaranteeing full connectivity and maximum link utilization, based on heuristic algorithms. They report simulation results showing that it is possible to reduce the number of links and nodes currently used by up to 30% and 50%, respectively, during off-peak hours while offering the same service quality.